No, this is not the biggest scandal in the BBC's history (Scandal in the air, G2, 23 October). Yes, the BBC does live by its "noble ideals" (Comment, 23 October). What we are currently witnessing is the first major attack by the right on a great liberal institution since their retreat to the bunker following the banking and Murdoch crises. Now they sense an opportunity to join a great British slag-off. The Sun, the Mail, Tory MPs and the prime minister are thoroughly enjoying the current discomfort of the BBC.

A series of revelations about an odious man's odious activities is becoming an assault on the integrity of the BBC itself. In the view of some, an impotent little state institution dispensing righteous propaganda would be a preferable use of public money; the sooner it can be broken up and privatised, the better

Let us remind ourselves of what we've got – a magnificent, complex organisation that provides quality knowledge, information and entertainment for the whole nation. It can't get everything right all of the time, but it is successful most of the time. If this bastion of liberal ideals goes, the Guardian won't be far behind. Arthur GouldLoughborough

• The BBC is being attacked over a programme that was withdrawn after Jimmy Savile was dead. We should be asking why the police, secret service (given Savile was a friend of Prince Charles and a regular guest of Thatcher's at Chequers), civil service (given his role at Broadmoor), investigative journalists, newspapers etc didn't discover what Savile was up to while he was alive so he could be tried. Who really covered up here?

There is a danger that this issue is being increasingly used by the rightwing establishment to attack the BBC when Savile may well have got away with it because he was "one of us", intimately connected at the highest levels.Nick TomsLondon

• The BBC director general has expressed his confidence in the structure for "reporting up" within the Corporation at moments of editorial doubt. Twenty-five years ago or so an earlier structure, which had proved invaluable as long ago as the Suez crisis, was jettisoned. Previously a DG had a chief assistant at his side, a post which I held in the 1980s. My role was to keep in regular touch with all BBC news and current affairs outlets, acting on his behalf as a consultant on controversial matters. I could react directly on my own authority, but anything of real moment was reported to him immediately. We investigated personally. A decision often came within minutes, sometimes longer. The facts were not discussed with hints and nods. Reporting up to the editor-in-chief was swift and substantial. The tangle of the present crisis is unprecedented. But past arrangements might have sorted it out more effectively.David HolmesHalesworth, Suffolk

• Could the high viewing figures for Panorama's investigation of Newsnight mean that rather than going down in history as the BBC's shortest-serving DG ever, George Entwistle will instead be celebrated as the accidental inventor of a popular new format? I look forward to Blue Peter's hard-hitting investigation of the One Show and Nigelissima's devastating exposé of The Great British Bake Off.Stefan SimanowitzLondon

• Will Newsnight end up as the BBC's sacrificial victim, and suffer the same fate as the News of the World? Given the BBC management's ham-fisted handling of matters so far, who would rule it out?Paul PastorOrmskirk, Lancashire

• One aspect of the Savile scandal has been overlooked. In response to the clerical abuse scandal, the Irish government has proposed a law that requires priests to report sexual abuse disclosed in the confession box to the secular authorities; those who fail to do so may be jailed for up to 10 years. Predictably, the Catholic church opposes this. Jimmy Savile was a devout Catholic; one can only speculate what he was thinking at the masses he attended daily, or whether he ever confessed his sins to a priest, but might it not be sensible for other governments to consider implementing the Dublin proposal?Alistair McBayNational Secular Society